Hello folks! Hope everyone is ready to gear up for the holidays, I know I am. This may be one of my last posts until the new year, I'm flying home (across the US) for Christmas break starting Friday, so I'm busting my butt to get a lot of stuff done before then. So, enjoy the show! We got a new granite inspection table this week. This thing is incredibly heavy (I'm guessing over 1000 pounds): Side Pieces: This weekend I've been working on the side pieces and the backplate. If you recall my design, I have to make to of the following pieces: These pieces were rather big, so the aluminum was hard to come up with. We had a piece of aluminum 9.75" in diameter (cylinder) and almost 3" thick. I couldn't cut the piece in half to make both of the sections, but if I cut it 9mm off center and then stepped across the centerline 9mm to the other side, I could fit the 2 pieces in!! Yay for me! Also...this thing took forever to cut in half. The aluminum bandsaw blade snapped (and I about pissed myself) so I had to use the steel bandsaw. Took about 30 minutes to cut through . This is how big this chunk of aluminum is: Putting it in the CNC, I faced the top and the sides to get a nice 0,0,0 position: After facing the piece, I cut an inch or so off of the other side to get the piece closer to the final size. I milled the alignment holes in each side, then I roughed it out (CNC go go!). Then I finished the piece with a long, small ball end mill. Seems like I forgot to take a finish shot. That'll be in my next update. Motherboard Backplate: Since I didn't want to spend all night at the machine shop, I chose something easy. Here's what the piece should look like: Cut the piece out of 1/16" aluminum: Cutting the pattern! Prying the piece of aluminum off of the plexi (very good double sided tape) was a pain in the butt. Did I ever mention I hate sanding aluminum? That gunk sticks to your hand. Final shots!
Holy sweet mother of modding! That is a HUGE chunk of aluminum! I feel the sudden urge to touch it. This is one epic project, I love it. Keep it up!
This is looking great! /Subbed! Btw, to get aluminum off of your hands, just use normal dishwasher soap, with lemon aroma! The lemon is the secret!
Thanks for the advice. We actually have a parts cleaner, with I'm assuming what is degreaser, and that stuff just takes it right off. It heats the water up really hot though, so it's a pain to wash your hands in. The powder soap also works great. By the way, I love your Wii mod :-D, and thanks for the support!
Top Assembly of Case So since I'm leaving on Friday and I'm busy Thursday night, I'm busting my butt to get everything ready and started! I got my plexi today!! I do have one question for you guys before I get started here. I'm going to have pins connecting the pieces to align them. I was thinking stainless originally, but I have a rod of brass I recently acquired. I'm up in the air as to which one to use (I need 26 of them, so both is probably out of the question). Any help? Anyway...here's what I'm doing with the top piece to CNC the inside. I put the blocks together as shown here, and layered it with the plexi I cut out. Here's some pictures with the plexi sitting on top. I had to pin the alignment holes to see the correct diameter. The stainless and brass rods are 1/4" thick, so I was expecting to shave just a tiny bit off. Turns out I'll be taking them down to 0.265" or so. I started a nice process in which to make the 26 little pins. What a pain!! I lathe it down, chamfer one end, polish it, part it, then set it aside. After all are done, I put a stop in the chuck of the lathe, machine one to the correct length, then face all of the rest of them, then chamfer them! Yikes! Test pieces: I'll be updating you guys tomorrow, hopefully. The CNC process for this piece will be an all day venture, so we shall see how it goes! Here's a shot of the solid model just to give you guys an idea of how this will look after it is done:
At least no one can steal it. It looks like it's shaping up into a two-person lift from all the solid aluminum! Case looks really sweet though, keep it up! Wtb access to a machine shop for personal use...
Friggen hell, man! This is going to rule! (no... It already does.) How awesome is a computer project that requires steel-toe boots? -Good call on the stainless pins. The brass would have darkened over time. I'm curious to see how you are clamping all this down.
Happy new year everyone! Big update here. Time wise, not quite content wise. These next pictures are over the course of a few days, just to complete one thing! If you can remember, I had the 3 solid pieces of aluminum lined up ready to CNC. Well, here's the process! Roughing Roughing Mounted Roughing Closeup Roughing No Flash Finishing in Action Finishing in Action Finishing in Action Finishing in Action Finishing in Action Finished Aluminum Pieces Finished Aluminum Pieces Acrylic Set up for Machining Roughing of Acrylic Roughing of Acrylic Roughing of Acrylic Roughing of Acrylic Roughing of Acrylic Finish Passes Finish Passes Finish Passes Finish Passes Finish Passes Finished Acrylic Section Here's a finished shot showing some improvements on sanding that need to be done (finished with 620 grit, will do more when I get some). Finished, Sanded Finished, Sanded Finished Closeup Happy New Year!
Good god I hope I get access to a CNC machine at some point in my life, nice work and happy new year!
If that's not the case, then what's the fun? Although, with a slim blu-ray slot drive, the price jumped up a bit, so I may be safe.
3D milling Cheesecake! How long did it take to machine the 3D aluminum? And what software do you use? BTW, still loooooove this one!
+1 on what AngelOD said, ('Specially the looooove part.) I'm currently shopping for CAM software, and the prices are a direct hit on the groin area.
